Pour another glass?
In the headlines today is yet another story on the health benefits of red wine. I'm a little skeptical. While it does sound like this one substance, resveratrol, has some real health potential, I'm also struck by the fact that the dosage given to mice in this study is equivalent to 750 bottles of wine per person per day. An extra glass of wine, in that case, would have almost no effect. Yet rather than a study about resveratrol itself, most headlines start with the "red wine is good for you" idea, one which for various reasons has more resonance in the cultural imagination, I think.